


The Emotional Start

by sevenstevearmy



Series: Courting of Course [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Logic | Logan Sanders Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 02:13:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20806826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenstevearmy/pseuds/sevenstevearmy
Summary: Finding an old picture book sparks a discovery.





	The Emotional Start

**Author's Note:**

> Eventual LAMP bbs. There will be five parts total but idk when I'll be updating.

“Haha! Roman come look at these old pictures I found of us!”  
“I remember that day! That was right after one of Thomas's first performances. The audience was only his family, but considering his age and skill level it was still something to be proud of.”  
“Oh! And look here! We were making art of Thomas's friends.”  
“Huh? What's this one?”  
“Hmmm… that looks like… Logan? He has just the cutest smile.”  
“Why us he covered in mud? And are those bugs?”  
“Oh! How could I have forgotten? Logan loved going out and exploring! Bugs were some of his favorite things to pick up and study. Sometimes I would pick up pretty rocks and he'd take out books to figure out what they were and how they were formed. He was always so happy and excited about everything.”  
“Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember picking flowers and he would jump at the chance to tell me all about where they came from and what other plants they were related to. Of course that was back before… you know.”  
“It's been a while since I've seen him that excited.”  
“It's been a while since I've seen him excited at all.”  
“What happened?”

What happened indeed, to make someone so happy and excited about everything rarely smile or strike up a conversation? 

“Hey Pops. Hey Prince. Whatcha up to?”  
“We were just going through some old photos…” Patton started, “but now we… well…”  
“When's the last time you saw Logan smile, genuinely smile, a smile filled with pure unadulterated joy?”  
“Logan? Like, Mr. Serious, doesn't do puns, emotions are the bane of my existence Logan?”  
“How did we miss this!” Patton exclaimed.   
“Woah, Pat. You ok? What's going on?”  
“Look at this picture,” Patton insisted shoving the photo album in Virgil's face.   
“Alright, geez,” Virgil took the book. “Who is that?”  
“Guess,” Roman replied with frustration, confusion, and worry taking over his face.   
“Logan?”  
“Yeah it's him,” Roman replied. 

They would have to do something about this. Roman took it upon himself to try first. After a couple days he went and knocked on Logan's door. 

“Come in.”  
“Hello dearest nerd. I have brought you something.”  
“Is that a bouquet of flowers?”   
“Indeed it is.” Roman smiled and tried his best to look sure of himself.   
“What did you do this time?” Logan assumed that they were a gift in an attempt to make up for some disaster he would inevitably have to resolve.   
“I didn't do anything! I was just wondering if… well maybe you would tell me about them? I've heard the history of violets is very interesting.”  
“... Are you sure?”  
“Of course!”  
“Oh. This must be for a project. Well this first one is a-”

Logan gave a brief history and biology lesson of each flower under the assumption Logan needed this information for something. He wasn't taking notes so he kept it to the basics.

“Thank you for the knowledge! See you at dinner!”

Roman went to leave but Logan stopped him. 

“Aren't you going to take those?” He gestures to the flowers Roman had left on the nightstand, now in a base.   
“Oh. I wasn't planning on it. They're for you if you want them.”  
“Well in that case, thank you. I will see you at dinner.”

Roman smiled and left. He decided he would come back once a week until he saw that smile he remembered, and probably after that too. 

A few days later, Patton was next. He looked up pictures of the prettiest rocks and enough information for Roman to create them for him accurately.

“Hey, Logan! If you’re not busy, could I come in?”  
Patton often would nag about eating or sleeping, but he didn’t very often ask to come in, so of course Logan had to say yes. “You may come in.”  
“”Thanks! I was wandering around the imagination and I found these really pretty rocks. Look! Can you tell me about them?”  
“Oh, is that all? Well I suppose I have time that I could do that. This pink one is formed by-”

So Logan told him all about the rocks, how they were formed, what elements and compounds gave them their colors, and how frequently and where they were found in nature.

“Gee, Logan. That’s really interesting!”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah! I have to go get dinner started, but maybe you could tell me some more later?”  
“Should my schedule permit it, I think that would be fine.”  
“Ok. Don’t work too hard.”  
“I won’t.” He would of course, but he didn’t like to make Patton worry since it would decrease both of their productivity leaving Thomas running on Virgil and Roman, which was never a good idea. “Aren’t you going to take these with you?”  
‘“Oh, could you hold onto them for me? For next time?”  
“I suppose that would be fine.”  
“Ok, see you at dinner!”

Patton all but cried as he made dinner. Logan had not smiled once. What were they going to do?

Virgil didn’t remember much from when they were young and all together. He wasn’t as strong a side then because Thomas didn’t have much to be anxious about. He did know that Logan liked philosophers and debates, but he really liked astronomy. He would read up on some philosophers and try a debate first, because he had an idea for the other option. So again a few days later, Logan heard a knock at his door.

“Can I assume that’s Virgil?”  
“Yeah.”  
“... Do you want to come in?”  
“Yeah.”  
“... You can open the door.”  
“Ok.”   
Virgil opened the door and stood just outside of it. Logan turned to him and sighed. “What I mean is that you can come in.”  
“Oh. Thanks.” 

Virgil sat on the floor in the middle of his room and waited. Logan waited as well for the other side to say _something_. That didn’t happen.

“Is there something I could help you with?”  
“Yeah actually, see this guy, what’s his name? Well any way, he thought-”

Virgil started going on about a few philosophers, taking the opposite side of what he knew Logan would take so that he could think the debate was his idea. It got kind of heated at one point, but remained civil.

“Well you certainly had some interesting points that require further thought.”  
“Uh… yeah. You too.”  
“Let’s do this again sometime?”  
It wasn’t a smile, but it was progress. “Sure.”

Afterwards, Virgil let the others in on his idea.

“He really asked to do it again? Good job, Kiddo! That’s farther than Roman or I got.”  
“I think the problem is that while he probably still likes botany and geology, he’s moved his interest into other places. That’s why I’m thinking next we go for astronomy. So here’s the plan-”

Roman had set up a perfect night sky. They had looked up what the sky should look like based on their location and the time of year, and even found a site that showed what the sky would be without light pollution. It was beautiful. The hard part was going to be getting Logan to come to the imagination. It had been a long time since he was last there. Virgil had accounted for this, though. If Patton begged and pleaded for something so harmless and inconsequential with his puppy dog eyes, Logan would not say no, especially since it wasn’t an issue relating to Thomas. 

“Hey Logan, are you busy?”  
“I suppose not.”

Logan sighed. He was getting these visits more and more frequently, and while he didn’t really have work to do, he liked to use his free time for other things. Still, after all this time, he still couldn’t say no to Patton. No matter how much he felt they didn’t care about him, he cared about them. With all of these visits it almost felt like they liked him and wanted to see him more, but Logan refused to get his hopes up.

“Well, I was wondering if you come to the imagination with me. It will be very quick, I promise.”  
“Why do you want me of all people to come to the imagination? I can’t do anything there.”  
“You can do plenty! Please? It has to be you. You’re the only one who can- Well it just has to be you, ok?”

Patton was going to cry if Logan said no and Logan could tell. He could also tell Patton was trying his best to cover it up, so he wouldn’t say anything about it.

“Ok. I’ll come. One moment.”

Patton nearly cried with joy when Logan opened the door. Patton’s tear ducts were determined to do something that night, if it was the last thing they did. Patton grabbed Logan’s hand and pulled him to the imagination. Logan was stunned when they got there.

“Come on, just a bit further,” Patton guided him to the spot where Roman and Virgil were already sitting on a blanket.  
“You managed to get him, I see.”  
“Of course he did. I told you he would.”  
“Alright, no need to get grumpy on me, Knightmare.”  
“That one again?”  
“Do you not like it?”  
“Well what’s so special about it?”  
“Ahem,” Patton did not do all this work for Logan to come listen to bickering.  
“Sorry, Pat,” they spoke simultaneously.  
“Soooo… Logan, we were wondering if maybe you’d want to lay under the stars with us?”  
“And tell us the constellations’ magnificent stories!”  
“And about the different stars and galaxies.”  
“Yes, but only if you want to.”  
“What is this? Be honest with me. You’ve all been acting strange lately, Virgil less so, but in combination with you two something just isn’t adding up.”  
“Well we wanted to hang out with you,” Patton offered.  
“Then why didn’t you before?”  
“Well it’s not that we didn’t want to, it’s just- we just-” Roman tried.  
“You just what?” Logan’s voice was flat. He was about to leave.  
“Patton,” Virgil spoke up, “just tell him.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“Yes.”  
“Ok, well see the thing is, I found an old photo album and we were looking through the pictures… and there was creativity and me and you and there was this one of you, all covered in mud with a box of bugs… and you were smiling. It was such a sweet genuine smile. You were really happy! But then we tried to think of the last time you really smiled like that and… It’s our fault ok?! We know it. We just want to see you smile because we want you to be happy. And we didn’t put in enough effort before, but we want to change that! You’re so special to me- us, Logan, and I just can’t bear to think that because of our actions you’ll never smile again. So we’ve done our research and made our best effort. All of us. Would it be ok with you… if we kept trying? Maybe we don’t deserve forgiveness, especially me, but can we earn it?” Patton’s voice was cracking and breaking by the end.  
“I… You… You’ve been doing all of this, because you wanted me to be happy?”  
“Yes! We want nothing more!” Roman chimed in, knowing he couldn’t let Patton carry all of the emotional words.  
“And… you’re asking my permission to keep trying to make me happy?”  
“Yes!” It was Virgil’s turn now. “We understand if you say no, but if you’d let us, we… Well we’d keep trying until the day came that you smiled, and then we’d keep trying so we could keep that smile on your face.”  
Logan’s voice was suddenly soft and vulnerable, he was near tears. “How come you never noticed before?”  
“Oh Logan!” Patton all but wailed. “We’re so sorry! We tried doing what we did with each other. We never realized that we needed to try something different for you. And that’s our fault. It’s our own fault we never noticed. It happened so gradually, but we should have seen it sooner. I could give a million reasons but there is no excuse!” He was full on bawling at this point.  
“... Yes.” Logan finally said.  
“Huh?” Virgil asked, face wet with his own tears.  
“You can keep trying. I give you permission.”  
“Oh thank you Logan! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”  
“You’re welcome. Now, Roman would you comfort Patton before he passes out from hyperventilating? That would not be ideal for a night under the stars.”

Roman nodded eagerly, pulling Patton close as he and Logan sat down on the blanket as well. It wasn’t quite the perfect night they had envisioned, but it was a decent beginning to a long, hard journey. After all, years couldn’t be made up for in one night.


End file.
